


Different sides

by strangerthingswasntthatgood



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Harringrove, M/M, Mention of sex, i guess i should tag this as Billy/OC but honestly why, not edited, slight nsfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-04-03 18:37:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14002122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerthingswasntthatgood/pseuds/strangerthingswasntthatgood
Summary: We've all seen the picture. Two childhood friends meet and they're on different sides of a demonstration. Steve meets his ex-boyfriend at one for his right to love men.





	Different sides

“Let us marry!”, “We want kids!” and “My body, my choice” were only a few things Steve had heard since he joined the demonstration two hours ago. Will was there with him. They hadn’t meant to end up here, but they had. Life take turns no one expects and now the two men walked together with hundreds of others that demanded their rights. Yes, Steve Harrington walked for his right to marry a man. For his right to adopt, for his right to have the same job as anyone else and most of all, he walked for Will. Steve could marry a woman, he wouldn’t mind that, but Will deserved to be happy.  
Steve Harrington was bisexual. He had been for as long as he could remember and he didn’t care if he held hands with a woman or a man, but he wanted to be able to hold hands with a man if he wanted to. Right now, he could lose his job only for the sake of loving someone.  
“Steve?” Will asked and Steve turned to him. The kid had grown up to look much like his brother. Will was as thin as Jonathan had been that age and while Will’s hair never grew longer than to below his ears, his bangs fell in his eyes much like Jonathan’s had.  
“Yeah?” Steve asked. He almost had to shout over the roaring masses of people. Before Will had to say anything, Steve could see what he meant. If Joyce ever found out about this, Steve was pretty sure she would kill him. Or at the very least throw him away.  
“We need to move”, Steve called to the other and grabbed Will’s wrist. If it had only been him, Steve wouldn’t have cared about the people that came towards him, but no seventeen year old should ever have to get caught up in a fight like this one might turn into.  
The people that met them were one of people who didn’t share their believes. They had signs with words that Steve wouldn’t even want to say out loud and, to his surprise, the police seemed to be with them. They should have their right to demonstrate. In a democracy, people get to say what they want!  
Someone, just a feet from Steve, dropped to the ground. Steve couldn’t make out what had happened to him, but the man wailed like a dying man. When Steve turned back to Will, the teen had turned almost white. The circles under his eyes were dark and matched Will’s jacket.   
“Stay calm.” Steve told him, but loosened the grip on his wrist. If Will wanted to run, he could, and that was probably what was important right now. Will nodded slowly and took a step back. People either moved towards the man on the ground or away from him. In a different situation, it could have looked pretty funny. A wall of nothing stood between them, yet the few feet parted them like an ocean.  
“C’mon.” Steve said and tried to pull Will with him as he tried to walk away. Will had tensed up and Steve was sure the other had spotted someone he knew, but it didn’t really matter right now. They needed to get away from there before the police decided to arrest someone. Will could explain to people why he had been there later.  
“Steve.” Will tried to pull back his wrist and as soon as Steve let go off him, Will closed the gap between him and the wailing man. Steve hurried to follow him, but Will didn’t kneel by the man like he had thought he would, but hurried closer to a man by the sidewalk. The way he stood looked oddly familiar. He leaned against a street lamp in the middle of the crowd and when Will had stopped in front of him, Steve finally understood.   
Billy Hargrove. Ex-boyfriend. Wrong side. This wasn’t just an ocean, this was a wall, an ocean, a world of stars and galaxies. He looked different from what he used to. His hair had been cut off almost by the skull and his shirt was buttoned all the way up. To be honest, he looked like an adult. Only when he walked closer did Steve see the badly covered bruise.  
“Billy!”  
Will turned to Steve, but Billy didn’t as much as move. He stared at the man on the ground, as if Will didn’t stand right in front of him and as if Steve hadn’t just called for him. Steve shoved Will away. He didn’t mean to, it just happened in the rush of it all.  
“Billy?” Steve asked again. Steve was so close to Billy now, that he could see the small cut he had right above his left eyebrow. The one he had gotten when they fell out of bed during sex. At the time it had been worrying, but now it was a fond memory.  
Steve grabbed Billy’s jacket when the other still didn’t look at him. Only when he did, did Billy turn to him. The same second Steve met his eyes, his emotions exploded. Here was a man he had once loved, a man he had not only kissed and screwed, but also held hands with and made breakfast with and danced with.  
Billy looked as if he was about to vomit. His face had turned to a green-ish color. It was very comical.  
“Let me go.”  
Steve pushed Billy closer to the street lamp. Maybe he could shake some sense into the man. Maybe Billy wasn’t really on the wrong side. Maybe he had only stopped to have a smoke or maybe he was there to watch the demonstration. Maybe he didn’t think Steve had to be… cured.  
Will said something, but Steve couldn’t make out what it was. Billy had turned away again. Steve felt the tears burn behind his eyelids, but he promised himself he wouldn’t cry. Billy Hargrove had never deserved it.  
“What was I to you?” he asked, but doubted Billy could hear him. His voice broke. “Was I ever anything to you? Anything but… but another one?”  
People had turned to have a look at them by now, but Steve couldn’t leave without an answer. Maybe it had been the same thing as with Nancy, all over again, and it only took him three years to figure it out this time.  
“William?”  
A woman had stopped right next to Billy. Her blonde hair reached her shoulders and the red lipstick was the only thing dark about her.  
“Who is this?” she asked and walked closer to Steve this time, almost as if she had a look at him to decide if she should call for the police.  
“High school friend. He was just about to leave.” Billy finally spoke and turned to meet Steve’s eyes again. “Right?”  
Steve let go off the other. Sure. He could leave.  
“Let’s go, Will. Some people aren’t worth fighting for.”


End file.
